User blog:Incrognito/Update 24 "Deathwish": Am I alone?
TL;DR: Stealth good, overkill bad, Overkill naughty, teasing wankers. Go loud or be methodical; There's no other choice. Since update 24 came out, I've replayed most of the missions. Whether or not Overkill realizes it, I have noticed a difference in difficulty on some heists, specifically Diamond Store and Watchdogs so far (though more may be affected). Specifically what I'm talking about is just a higher volume of enemies. Either they spawn faster or they move into position faster, but either way, it is not uncommon to be fighting hordes of police in numbers of twenty or more at one time, even on normal difficulty. I tried to play Watchdogs on overkill difficulty with a fairly well-organized crew - something which I have done no fewer than two times in recent memory - and it is now nearly impossible. To my knowledge, Overkill has not acknowledged this in any way. In my opinion, those particular heists are virtually unplayable in their current state. Damned shame. On the other hand, they've also fundamentally changed how stealth is approached. Before, players could pretty much steam roll Framing Frame and Bank Heist in stealth. The main things that have been changed are: *Each player may only provide up to two body bags during any given heist *No player may use Joker to covert any guard during the stealth phase *Certain maps now feature guards which spawn during the stealth phase to reinforce those who have been killed or captured (which, I might add is rather beyond the suspension of disbelief) In response to this, there are new strategies which must be employed to continue stealthing heists: *On Framing Frame day 1, guards will respawn out across the street from the art gallery and walk towards the bathroom's outside door, at which point they will either patrol the roof or possibly - and this is conjecture - enter the gallery via the bathroom. At least two guards can spawn in this manner - tested on Very Hard Pro mode. In this case, my new strategy is simply to creep around the place and steal paintings one at a time. This is possible, because the guards do not notice missing paintings. I'm not sure if they ever did, but they surely do not now. On day 3, guards will respawn via the elevator on the bottom floor and patrol normally. I have yet to succesfully stealth this, but I suspect it is similar to Firestarter day 2, where one can patiently retreive the needed items while avoiding the guards. Moving the cocaine and the gold on the other hand would be an interesting logistical challenge that I would very much like to see. I do not know how many guards respawn and if this number varies between difficulty levels. *Stealth on Firestarter Day 2 is now extremely difficult. Without a person with ECM Overdrive aced, the heist is virtually guaranteed to see the alarm go off before the server can be bagged. This is because the keycard is otherwise required to get through the second door before a guard finds the server room door open and becomes alerted. And even though they increased the difficulty of stealth, they still haven't fixed the guards' range of visibility, it being very unpredictable when they are directly above or below the player. In addition, guards can still spot open wire boxes from across the level, as long as they have a clear line of sight. Guards can of course be killed, but you can only get two of them bagged to-go, so good luck finishing the mission before one of the legion of guards finds a dead guy. The final word is, don't bother trying this at home unless you have ECM Overdrive aced and have spider senses for stealth. *Bank Heist - and subsequently Firestarter day 3 - is basically unchanged. You only ever had to bag two of the guards anyway, as long as you could entice at least one of them onto the roof. If the vault is in the back, you're gravy, mission accomplished. Otherwise, make sure at least two people are focused on crowd control, one outside, one inside and be sure to take out the cameras one way or the other before the people hit the floor. *Ukrainian Job is entirely unchanged, except when there are three guards outside. In that case, bag the two that can see in through the left-side room and then make sure the guard next to the camera station is shot so that he slumps against the cabinets. This will keep his corpse from being spotted by the wandering civs. *Nightclub is somewhat more stressful, you just need one person as a dedicated guard hunter. Makes sure their bodies don't land in front of any cameras and everything should be gravy. Get the kitchen staff down in the kitchen and tie them down, same with the backroom gamblers, respectively. Be ready to take down Dimitri if he shows his ugly mug, as he can throw a wrench in everything if you aren't prepared. *Four Stores is literally unchanged. Do note however, that on Deathwish difficulty, there are no ATMs on the map and a stealth run requires much more forethought. The payout is worth it though, so be diligent; Trying to fight the power on Deathwish is not something to be attempted in a Two-Piece Suit with a sawed-off CAR-4 . I haven't got a chance to stealth Diamond Store, Big Oil or Train since the patch, but I will return once I have. Personally, I like that stealth is now more difficult. Stealthing a mission was never something that should be done for the sake of time - quite the opposite. It should be done for the sake of the challenge. Simply put, if all you cared about was money and XP, there was never any reason to complete almost any heist stealthily. If you farmed Rats 24/7, you would be much farther along in two hours going loud than someone dutifully ghosting around Framing Frame for twenty-four hours. People need to get that through their heads. Usually, going loud is both easier and faster, and that has never changed. I bet that if Overkill had simply come out and said they were making stealth more challenging, most reasonable people would have at the very least taken it philosophically, if not welcoming the chance to overcome even greater challenges. Alas, Overkill is one among those strange devs who think that gamers like surprises. When it comes to fundamental gameplay mechanics, that is seldom if ever true. Category:Blog posts